{"id":3523,"date":"2015-06-20T17:08:19","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T21:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/?p=3523"},"modified":"2015-06-21T16:34:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-21T20:34:51","slug":"ocean-woes-may-be-linked-to-climate-anomalies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/2015\/06\/ocean-woes-may-be-linked-to-climate-anomalies\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean woes may be linked to climate anomalies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Problems with the ocean near the US coasts have been linked to the unusual climate we have seen lately across the country. \u00a0Here are some\u00a0stories that show different climate impacts on the sea.<\/p>\n

ThinkProgress<\/em> posted a story on Thursday about the huge toxic algal bloom that has forced the shut-down of fisheries along the West Coast. \u00a0The last time such a large accumulation of algae was seen was 1988. \u00a0Normally the blooms are most likely to occur in fall, but this year it has happened much earlier and is more widely spread than usual. \u00a0Scientists think this may be due to the above-normal sea surface temperatures which have been observed along the West Coast for the last several months. \u00a0This region of warmer than normal water was also linked to the persistent ridge of high pressure in the West and the complementary trough in the East that gave us our cold weather this past winter. \u00a0You can read the story at\u00a0https:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/climate\/2015\/06\/18\/3671377\/pacific-ocean-massive-toxic-algal-bloom\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

KHOU<\/em> in Houston TX quoted a Texas A&M oceanographer noting that the recent flooding in the southern and central Plains was leading to a huge influx of fresh water into the Gulf of Mexico. \u00a0This fresh water is lighter than salt water and sits on top of the normal coastal water, stratifying it and keeping oxygen from getting to the deeper water. \u00a0This is causing a large dead zone off the Texas coast due to the lack of oxygen for the plants and fish that normally thrive there. \u00a0You can read the story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The dead zone farther to the east near the mouth of the Mississippi River is also expected to expand since the flood waters have washed more agricultural chemicals than usual out into the Gulf, causing algal growth that also sucks oxygen out of the water. \u00a0An article<\/a> in Eos<\/em> this week notes that the eastern dead zone could reach the size of Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Finally, Accuweather<\/em> reported today that unusually warm water off the coast of Florida has led to the development of\u00a0Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria. \u00a0So far eight cases of bacterial infection have been reported, including two that resulted in deaths of residents in Marion and Brevard Counties. \u00a0Warmer than average temperatures in Florida in the past two months have contributed to the very warm water levels. \u00a0The bacteria enter human bodies through open wounds or cuts and mainly affect immuno-compromised individuals. \u00a0You can read that story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a>
Source: NOAA \/ Eos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Problems with the ocean near the US coasts have been linked to the unusual climate we have seen lately across the country. \u00a0Here are some\u00a0stories that show different climate impacts on the sea. ThinkProgress posted a story on Thursday about the huge toxic algal bloom that has forced the shut-down of fisheries along the West […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":3544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-and-ag-in-the-news","category-coastal","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3523"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3560,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523\/revisions\/3560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}